Teachers union poll: U.S. spending on education low

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

The nation's largest teachers union released a poll Wednesday that claimed two-thirds of voters surveyed believed the federal government wasn't spending enough on education and that reforms to the nation's education laws were unfair to schools.

"Most Americans fully support the goals of the law -- high standards, accountability for all and the belief that no child should be left behind regardless of their backgrounds or abilities," said National Education Association President Reg Weaver. "But growing numbers believe the law's rigid, one-size-fits-all provisions are preventing teachers and other educators from giving every child the individualized attention he or she needs to do well."

The poll's findings sparked a flurry of response from federal education officials, Republican lawmakers and policy groups. Eugene Hickok, undersecretary of the Department of Education, flatly refuted the union's findings and questioned both the motivation and the methodology of the poll and an accompanying fiscal study of the federal No child Left Behind Act.

"They made the rather stunning argument, stunning as in ludicrous, that we would need to spend basically 100 percent more than is currently being spent to fully fund No Child Left Behind," Hickok said in a media teleconference Wednesday. "We believe (the act) is well funded, funded adequately and the issue needs to be making sure that money is spent smartly."

Bolstering that argument is a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education that states returned $124 million in education funding to the U.S. Treasury for fiscals years 2000-2002, Hickok said.

"Given the fact that states argue they are out of money, they need money, you would think they would spend the money they were already appropriated before they asked for more money," Hickok said.

There was one aspect of the poll Hickok concurred with -- that 74 percent of respondents believed the nation's schools were improving or already in good shape.

Because of the two-year-old federal act, the efforts of President Bush and a bipartisan Congress, Americans are feeling better about the state of public schools, Hickok said.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio and chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, also countered the NEA's conclusions Wednesday.

In fact, Boehner said in a prepared statement, figures prepared by his committee suggest the federal government is increasing education funding faster than states can spend it -- as evidenced by the $124 million in returned dollars.

"We are pumping gas into a flooded engine," Boehner said.

Education funding is at an all-time high, with states receiving an average increase of 42 percent for programs targeting the poorest students, Boehner said.